Creating a Yellow Brick Road Quilt

Transcription

1 Creating a Yellow Brick Road Quilt Student Name IB MYP Personal Project Report Palmer High School 2018 Report Word Count: 3080

2 Objective A: Investigating Over this last summer, I thought long and hard about creating the personal project. I wondered what would be a project that I would be interested in, and yet that would also be a useful skill for later in life. Through that thought process, I came up with the goal of creating a quilt. My goal was to machine piece together a lap size (5 x7 ), yellow brick road pattern quilt using materials of my choosing. In identifying the global contexts that should be used in the making of my project, I realized that making a quilt would best help me with my personal and cultural expression. I would be able to put pictures of my family and I in the pattern, and I could also be able to pick out fabrics that I personally loved, therefore expressing who I am and what I love. Through making a quilt, I would fully be able to express my feelings and ideas while learning more about my creativity. Before I began this process, I knew very little about quilting. My mom used to do minor quilting sewing projects. All the knowledge I had came from the little bits that she did. At the very beginning of my process, I thought I had an idea of what my quilt would turn out to be in the end; I was wrong. I had the simple idea that it would turn out to be a tic-tac-toe board made of plain old squares. When I dug a little deeper into my research I found that there are so many different things that could be done with quilting. A big part of my research was finding someone who would be able to teach me the basics on how to quilt. I originally thought that I would go see one of the women that made quilts for the Waldo Canyon Fire Victims. I had very good memories of the beautiful quilts they made for people with the same fate us my family. My plan then changed because, through asking around, I found a woman who was a skillful quilter who would be willing to help me. After I found her, much of my research was done. Additional research that I conducted was through quilting books

3 looking for techniques, and looking at prices and searching where to buy the proper sewing tools. I also used my sewing machine manual in order to find proper techniques and in general how to use it because I had never sewn with this machine before. See Appendices A, B, D and E Objective B: Planning My personal project goal of machine piecing a quilt, would only be able to be completed with certain criteria, planning and self-management skills. The criterion that I created was crucial in the completion of the project. The criteria for my quilt were: Criteria I will research patterns, and sizes and the challenge level of different quilt patterns so I may pick an appropriate one I will research different prices of the materials I need I will schedule times on the calendar for workdays because this will require so much time I will constantly write in my personal journal to keep track of my process I will practice before I start my quilt, with scraps and certain threads and sizes I will complete a practice quilt that allows practice with cutting, ironing, and sewing I will purchase the tools and fabrics that are needed to complete this project I will use this project to build relationships with people I would have normally never met such as Mary Martin (my quilting teacher) I will finish piecing the quilt top, attaching the borders, attaching the backing, and put a patch on the final product saying my name and the date. The personal project was a long process that required an extensive amount of work and time. Throughout the experience, I used a process journal in order to document how my ideas formed, research, sketches, steps to complete a section of my quilt, and many other elements. The process journal, although used for many facts, was also used in order to document my personal experience. Within the process journal, I also put in pictures of myself working in order to prove that this project is a wonderful learning experience.

4 During my quilt-making journey, I had to demonstrate many selfmanagement skills. In order for my project to come out successfully, I had to be very orderly and organized, I had to put in a lot of time, and I had to make sure I budgeted my time correctly. I created a timeline in order to stay on top of my process. Without my timeline and the constant scheduling of workdays, I would not have completed all that I completed. In order to create my quilt, I had to be very neat and very precise with my cutting and sewing because if I were not, it would make things incredibly difficult to put together at the end (Martin). The ending product would not have been as neat. Because I put in all of the work in the earlier stages, it paid off greatly in the end. See Appendices B, C, D and G Criterion C: Taking Action In order to respond to my goal, criteria, and have it fit with the global context, there were many things that I had to do. To complete my goal of making a quilt, I had to practice before I started, then for the real quilt, I had to buy fabric, cut them all to be the right size, sew individual pieces together, iron, and sew them to other parts. Then repeat. In order to match up with the global context of personal and cultural expression, I had to rely on myself and make this project about expressing me and nobody else. This was my project, and I had to realize that I was the boss. Before starting the real thing, Ms. Mary, the woman who was my quilting instructor, told me it would be a good idea to do a small sewing project for practice. So, I constructed a small table topper quilt that looked like a carrot. It was made of many strips of orange fabric sewn together. By making this I was able to practice some of the crucial steps to quilt making: cutting and sewing straight lines. This little carrot gave me lots of practice so I was able to start the real thing. I then went to Ruth s Stitchery, and bought twelve cohesive fabrics for my main quilt. The next steps were ironing all pieces, cutting them all down to size for each block that would be completed, then sewing two pieces together. Iron down

5 the seam and then sew that to another piece. Sometimes this would involve cutting a piece that had just been sewn. After a long process of cutting, sewing and ironing, I eventually had every single block complete. To create my lap size of 5 by 7, I needed 35 blocks (Terry Atkinson, 2000). An additional part of the quilt process was getting the photos of my family onto muslin fabric. Then I sewed on a black border to all of them to make it the correct size. The next step was to sew the rows together and then sew down the rows (Becky Johnston, 2006). After that, I had the top part of my quilt complete. This quilt required a lot of thinking and configuring. During the cutting process, fabrics had to be measured perfectly or else it would throw off the next piece. Also during the construction of the photos with the borders, it took a few calculations to figure out how large they needed to be printed, how big to cut the border with a 1/4 th seam allowance, and how to cut the pictures so they were perfectly square. There was also a more mental aspect of thinking in my project. At the very beginning, I had the idea that I was going to create a quilt with fabrics that reminded me of someone or a special memory. I thought through that idea after I had done research on quilt making and I realized that it would be extremely hard to find cohesive fabrics that would remind me of something and yet would look cohesive (John Riha, 2007). Looking back on my original idea, I think maybe I just wanted to do that in order to have an emotional connection to the project to make it easier to put my heart into it. This project has brought out lots of mathematical calculations, brainstorming ideas, and even deeper, emotional thinking. I had to brainstorm all throughout the project to solve little problems that popped up along the way, and I also did major brainstorming at the very beginning to get me started. My personal project brought out problem solving skills that I never knew that I had. I believe communication and social skills may have been one of the most important aspects to my project. I collaborated and learned so much from Ms. Mary, my instructor. She taught me so much and would come over when I worked on my project. She would supervise and assist me if I needed guidance. Without her, I

6 believe my project wouldn t look nearly as proficient. Our communication consisted of texts and s about future workdays. During the project, I also had to collaborate with my wonderful supervisor Ms. Derr. She assisted me so much throughout my whole project and I am so grateful for her support and guidance. This project has not only made me a quilter, but I also have new relationships that have evolved more because of it. See Appendices F, H, I and J Criterion D: Reflecting The personal project is much more than having students create something new. It is intended to help students grow and expand their knowledge and develop to be well-rounded IB learners. The first section explains my completion of my project based on my criteria, and then the second reflects on how I have been expanded and my development. These are the criteria that I created at the beginning of my project in order to determine my success: I will research patterns, and sizes and the challenge level of different quilt patterns so I may pick an appropriate one At the very beginning of my process, I completed this criterion because I needed to find a goal that would not be impossible to do. I wanted a challenge but not something out of my reach; just something that I would have to stretch a little for. The Yellow Brick Road quilt was good for me because as far as many quilts go, it was one of the simpler quilts in technique. I successfully completed this criterion. I will research different prices of the materials I need I was successful in researching where to get tools and materials I needed. I even used coupons to buy some of the more expensive tools. Everything that I needed to complete the quilt added up to be quite expensive, but I was successful at researching prices and where to buy all of my items. I will schedule times on the calendar for workdays because this will require so much time

7 This was a very good example of self-management skills because I had to constantly be thinking of when would I be able to work on my quilt. All throughout the project, I had to schedule times with Ms. Mary. This criterion took a very large amount of collaborating. It was a very important aspect of this project. I will constantly write in my personal journal to keep track of my process My process journal was a very big aspect of writing down my thoughts, and my progress as I went through the project. Every time I worked on my quilt, I would write in my journal. I would also write when I thought of something or when I had completed research that needed to be recorded. I consider this criterion to be a success because I did write in it very many times and the entries were of good quality. I will practice before I start my quilt, with scraps and certain threads and sizes This criterion was completed because before I started my quilt, I practiced. I did it in order to get the hang of cutting straight, and sewing perfectly straight lines. Also, each time before I sewed a piece of my quilt, I would sew on a scrap to make sure the seam allowance was a quarter of an inch. I will complete a practice quilt that allows practice with cutting, ironing, and sewing I did complete a practice quilt before I started the real thing. I had to make sure that I was ready because if I made a big mistake on my practice, it wouldn t be a big deal. I was able to practice my sewing, cutting, and ironing. It was very helpful. I will purchase the tools and fabrics that are needed to complete this project In order to complete my project, I had to buy all of the proper tools including a rotary cutter, a cutting mat, twelve fabrics, and special rulers. This was successful due to my research that I completed at the beginning. I will use this project to build relationships with people I would have normally never met

8 This project absolutely helped me build relationships that I would never have had before. I would not have gotten to know my quilting teacher Ms. Mary. I now am very close with her and I am so grateful for all of her help. I will finish piecing the quilt top, attaching the borders, attaching the backing, and put a patch on the final product saying my name and the date. This is the only criterion that is not fully complete. I finished piecing that top layer of my quilt, but I did not however attach the border, batting and backing. I also did not make the patch for the final product yet. What I did finish however, I am very happy with. I feel it is good quality and I realize, in my scenario, that it is better with good quality and less done, than a messy quilt that is barely finished. Completing this project has greatly extended my knowledge and understanding of quilting and the global context of personal and cultural expression. At the beginning of this project, I hardly knew anything about making a quilt. When I started to learn about all that a quilt consists of, I felt that I was way in over my head. Now after I am mostly finished, I am proud to say that I created my top layer of my quilt. I have learned so much about quilting, patterns, fabrics and many other things (Johnston, 2006). It has been an amazing experience, no matter how stressful it may have been at times. When I was originally forming my ideas about this project, I looked at the global contexts and I laid my eyes on the topic Personal and Cultural Expression. At the beginning of this project, I did not consider myself the least bit artistic. I had the idea in my mind that in order to be creative and artistic, I needed to be able to come up with brilliant ideas and be able to paint or draw them on a canvas. Now I see things differently. Looking at what I have created, I now know that everyone is creative and artistic in his or her own ways. Not everyone will be able to paint or draw a masterpiece, but what makes a person artistic and creative is being able to express themselves in a way that nobody else but themselves can do. Through making my quilt, I was able to express my ideas, and feelings through the colors and fabrics that I picked and also the photos. I hand-picked those photos because they represent my life and me. They help tell my life story without any words. After all, a

9 picture is worth a thousand words, and I have five on my quilt. This project has helped me grow because I now realize that I am special and unique. I am the only one who can do things my way. That is pretty special and a very valuable lesson in life. Finally, I have developed so much as an IB learner. IB learners are supposed to be well rounded. They have special qualities including but are not limited to being a risk taker, being knowledgeable, being an inquirer, and being a thinker. Through this project, I was able to see that I am many of these things. I took a risk making something that I knew could turn out to be a disaster. I attained more skills making me more knowledgeable than before. Being an IB student, I feel that all students may feel this way, but it seems like to be the ideal IB kid, you would have to be perfect. Sadly, that is what I strive for. Ultimately I am just setting myself up to fail. This project however has taught me a very valuable lesson that is crucial to be an IB student. I cannot be perfect. My Nana and my mother have this saying, they say A man on a flying horse. This may not make sense to others, but it means that if a man on a flying horse cannot see it, it is no big deal. Through making my quilt, if something was not as perfect as I would like it to be, I had to think of that. This project has helped me realize that I can only do my best and that my best is good enough. As an IB learner, in order to be well balanced, not everything can be one hundred percent, and I am very grateful for learning that now and not later in life. The personal project has helped me grow in so many ways. Through making my quilt, I was able to see how I can personally express myself, and now I know a lesson that I will use for the rest of my life. See Appendices C and G

10 Appendix Appendix A Excerpt from Goal Statement My goal is to machine piece together a lap size (5 x7 ), yellow brick road pattern quilt using materials of my choosing. This was evidence from my goal statement of my main goal that I wanted to accomplish. Excerpt from goal statement: Criteria Appendix B I will research patterns, and sizes and the challenge level of different quilt patterns so I may pick an appropriate one I will research different prices of the materials I need I will schedule times on the calendar for workdays because this will require so much time I will constantly write in my personal journal to keep track of my process I will practice before I start my quilt, with scraps and certain threads and sizes I will complete a practice quilt that allows practice with cutting, ironing, and sewing I will purchase the tools and fabrics that are needed to complete this project I will use this project to build relationships with people I would have normally never met such as Ms. Martin (my quilting teacher) I will finish piecing the quilt top, attaching the borders, attaching the backing, and put a patch on the final product saying my name and the date. Appendix B shows how criterion was planned in goal statement.

11 Appendix C Appendix C is what I originally thought my quilt would look like. At the time I wrote this, I wasn t really aware of what a real quilt would look like and consist of. Appendix D Appendix D shows research that I did about tools and proper techniques. I had written down things I needed to get in my process journal and that is what this is a picture of.

12 Appendix E Appendix E also shows research skills displayed within process journal Appendix F Appendix F shows some of the cutting, sewing, and ironing process that I had to go through in order to create a block. I had to be very organized or else I could mess up the entire quilt.

13 Appendix G Appendix G is a small timeline that I made in my process journal so I could put into perspective what I needed to get done and how much time I had left until April 22 nd. Appendix H Appendix H shows a picture of what I completed. It is not fully completed and so I did not fully reach my goal. I completed only the top part of the quilt and I still need to sew it to the border, batting, and the backing.

14 Appendix I Appendix I shows a picture of me creating the bordered pictures. This proves that I learned so many new things from this project. At the beginning of the process, I would have no idea how to do many of these things, and now I am able to do them without help and proficiently. Appendix J Appendix J gives the example of a page that was in my process journal. I drew those sketches to show the planning and parts of creating blocks. I also gave an example of how I was taught to iron.

15 Annotated Bibliography Atkinson, Terry. Yellow Brick Road. N.p.: Terry Atkinson, Print. This was the pattern instructions for the specific type of quilt I made: the Yellow Brick Road. Other than the lady who helped me, this was my main source of instruction because it gives you all of the steps of what to cut, who many squares to make and all of the steps on how to put it together. Without this, I would not know how many of everything I should use for my quilt. I couldn't do my quilt without it. Ham, Melanie. Patchwork: Chain Piecing and Nesting Seams How To. Youtube. N.p., 17 May Web. 6 Mar < watch?v=7adij-wwrba>. This video was very helpful in learning little tricks when creating a quilt. It gave me another set of opinions on how to do certain things. This video was very successful in helping me chain piece and how to put my quilt together. It was a very big help. A limitation of this video is that is skipped a huge step that I needed. Otherwise, it was very informative and very helpful in many ways. Johnston, Becky, ed. First-Time Quiltmaking. Urbandale: Landauer Publishing, Print. This book was helpful to me in giving me the basics of quilting such as what fabric how to cut fabric and how to prepare it and many other things. It was a great help. Martin, Mary. Personal interview Mary Martin was a crucial and very important part to my personal project. She was the one who came over to my house and helped me create the whole thing. She would guide me along, and I would do everything under her supervision. She is a very experienced and perfectionist quilter. She was extremely helpful and without her, I would not have had such a good outcome. She was my teacher and taught me all of her tricks of quilting. I am so very grateful for all of her help. Operation Manual Sewing Machine. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print. This reference source was the operation manual to my sewing machine. I used it very frequently because this was the first time I had ever used this sewing machine. It was a big help in helping me understand how to use it. Riha, John, ed. Memory Quilts with T-shirts, Autographs, and Photos. N.p.: Meredith Corporation, Print. Memory Quilts was a book about creating quilts with special things in them such as photos t-shirts and autographs. I originally thought it would be useful because I was planning on creating a quilt with special fabrics and pictures in it. It was very effective in helping me shape my ideas and helping me understand what all would need to be done for a quilt with different things in it to be successful. It honestly assisted me in chaining my mind to do a quilt with pictures and not my original plan.